Winter Olympics 2022 - Tongan flag bearer Pita Taufatofua misses Olympics to focus on disaster response after eruption

Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua, best known for bearing his nation's flag in traditional dress at the past three Olympics, will not attend the Beijing Games after opting to stay in Tonga to focus on disaster relief. Tonga was hit by a Tsunami in January following the eruption of a volcano just 40 miles away from parts of the Pacific island nation. Ad/> Large parts of the country were covered in ash, with residents losing power and communication.

Beijing 2022Riiber takes Nordic Combined gold in Seefeld28/01/2022 AT 17:20 And Taufatofua, who had not yet qualified for the Beijing Olympics at the time of the eruption, chose to miss out on his fourth Olympic Games to focus on helping his nation. Beijing 2022 LIVE! — Build-up to opening ceremony IOC president Bach to meet Peng inside Olympics 'closed loop “Even with the qualification criteria, I wouldn’t have been able to go to Beijing,” he said. «There are too many people who are hungry for me to not be focused there.

»I’ll certainly miss it. But what the Olympics stands for is more than just sport, and so I feel there’s some level of Olympic effort that we’re doing now anyway.” Taufatofua is among the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, becoming the first Tongan to qualify in taekwondo at Rio 2016 before competing as a cross-country skier in Pyeongchang two years later. But he found stardom after bearing Tonga's flag without a shirt in traditional Tongan clothing in Rio, before doing the same in freezing temperatures in Pyeongchang and then in Tokyo again.

And for now, he is happy to turn that fame into a platform for helping Tongans. “In the coming days, weeks we will need your help,” he wrote. “Initial priority for the funds will go